14 Aug. 1814–15 Jan. 1913. Born in Utica, Oneida Co., New York. Daughter of Calvin Field Bicknell and Chloe Seymour. Moved to Geneseo, Livingston Co., New York, 1817; to Livonia, Livingston Co., by 1830; and back to Geneseo, by 1834. Baptized into LDS church...

Mary Smith said
her husband had given her the privilege of donating
weekly one bushel of corn meal for the poor— wish’d to know where it
should be deposited.— also mentioned the case of a motherless child
needing a home— whereupon,

It was decided that for the present it should remain in
the care of Mrs. Eldridge— decided also that the meal
offered by Mrs. Smith as well as all other
provisions, should be put into the care of the Treas. where the needy may
apply for the same——

14 Aug. 1814–15 Jan. 1913. Born in Utica, Oneida Co., New York. Daughter of Calvin Field Bicknell and Chloe Seymour. Moved to Geneseo, Livingston Co., New York, 1817; to Livonia, Livingston Co., by 1830; and back to Geneseo, by 1834. Baptized into LDS church...

Mary Smith said
her husband had given her the privilege of donating
weekly one bushel of corn meal for the poor— wish’d to know where it
should be deposited.— also mentioned the case of a motherless child
needing a home— whereupon,

It was decided that for the present it should remain in
the care of Mrs. Eldridge— decided also that the meal
offered by Mrs. Smith as well as all other
provisions, should be put into the care of the Treas. where the needy may
apply for the same——

On 17 March 1842,
JS first formally organized Latter-day
Saint women in a group with distinct responsibilities and authority. At JS’s
invitation, twenty women assembled in the large room above his dry goods store
in
Nauvoo

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, LDS church purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas. Served as church headquarters, 1839...

, Illinois, to be organized, as one
woman recalled his description, “under the priesthood after the pattern of the
priesthood” (Sarah M. Kimball, “Auto-biography,” Woman’s
Exponent, 1 Sept. 1883, 51). Priesthood quorums—units of men assembled
according to priesthood office and usually headed by a president and two
counselors—had been organized previously. The women assembled on
17 March elected JS’s wife
Emma
Hale Smith

10 July 1804–30 Apr. 1879. Scribe, editor, boardinghouse operator, clothier. Born at Willingborough Township (later in Harmony), Susquehanna Co., Pennsylvania. Daughter of Isaac Hale and Elizabeth Lewis. Member of Methodist church at Harmony (later in Oakland...

president, and she selected two counselors; a member of the
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles ordained or set apart the three-member presidency
to their new callings or offices. These were the first ecclesiastical positions
in the church for women.

The name the women selected for
their institution, the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo, paralleled that of
contemporaneous women’s benevolent societies in the
United States

North American constitutional republic. Constitution ratified, 17 Sept. 1787. Population in 1805 about 6,000,000; in 1830 about 13,000,000; and in 1844 about 20,000,000. Louisiana Purchase, 1803, doubled size of U.S. Consisted of seventeen states at time ...

Principal gathering place for Saints following expulsion from Missouri. Beginning in 1839, LDS church purchased lands in earlier settlement of Commerce and planned settlement of Commerce City, as well as surrounding areas. Served as church headquarters, 1839...

women had met to form a “ladies
society” to sew shirts for temple workmen, an effort probably informed by the
broader benevolent movement. When
JS invited these women to be organized as
part of the church structure, they abandoned their plans for an independent
society with a constitution and bylaws. JS told them at the initial meeting,
“The minutes of your meetings will be precedents for you to act upon—your
Constitution and law” (Minutes, 17 Mar. 1842). This record of Relief Society
“organization and proceedings” includes minutes for seventeen meetings in
1842, thirteen in 1843, and four in 1844. By
the last recorded meeting in March 1844, a
total of 1,331 women had enrolled as members, most of them joining the first
year (Maureen C. Ward, “‘This Institution Is a Good One’: The Female Relief
Society of Nauvoo, 17 March 1842 to 16 March 1844,” Mormon Historical
Studies 3 [Fall 2002]: 87–203).

JS attended nine
Relief Society meetings in 1842 and addressed six
of them. These minutes document his instructions regarding women’s new
responsibilities, authority, and forthcoming temple blessings—the only record
of teachings JS directed specifically to women. The minutes detail donations
for and visits with the poor, contributions for
temple

construction, and
women’s efforts at moral reform and civic activism. Discussions reported in
this record refer explicitly or implicitly to tensions mounting in Nauvoo over
JS’s political influence and threatened extradition to
Missouri

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

3 Aug. 1804–5 Aug. 1867. Physician, minister, poultry breeder. Born at Fairhaven, Bristol Co., Massachusetts. Son of John Bennett and Abigail Cook. Moved to Marietta, Washington Co., Ohio, 1808; to Massachusetts, 1812; and back to Marietta, 1822. Married ...

, and the tumult surrounding the introduction of plural
marriage. The record of the Female Relief Society of Nauvoo ends on
16 March 1844; a decade passed before Relief
Society meetings resumed in the Salt Lake Valley.

Alphabetic tabs
appear on the initial twelve leaves, left blank with the exception of three
entries. Written on the recto of the “A–B” leaf is a note concerning provenance
of the volume, described below. Two other notes, one on the reverse of the
“A–B” leaf (“Jane Easton commenc’d work
August 9th 1852”) and the other on the recto
of the “L–M” leaf (“Mc Intire Geo. 2”) were penned by
Eliza
R. Snow

in the Salt Lake Valley when she briefly appropriated the volume
to record her temple ordinance work in the Council House. The last verso page
of this section begins the pagination of the volume through page 127. The leaf
with pages [2] and [3] is missing from the volume. It is unknown what, if
anything, was written on this leaf. Nor is it known when pagination was added.
Nine lines penned by Snow in very small script appear on the final page of the
volume. The first of these lines reads “Commenc’d in C.H.”, with dates and
numbers on subsequent lines.

for the purpose of keeping a minute book. Snow maintained
possession of the minutes. In 1855, at the request
of church president
Brigham
Young

1 June 1801–29 Aug. 1877. Carpenter, painter, glazier, colonizer. Born at Whitingham, Windham Co., Vermont. Son of John Young and Abigail (Nabby) Howe. Brought up in Methodist household; later joined Methodist church. Moved to Sherburne, Chenango Co., New...

, the minutes were handed temporarily to those compiling the
official history of the church for publication in the Deseret
News but were then returned to Snow. At the time of her death in
1887, the book came into the hands of Dr.
Romania B. Penrose, Relief Society assistant secretary,
who gave the book to
Bathsheba
W. Smith when Smith became general Relief Society president in
1901. The note inscribed on lines 2 through 6 on
the recto of the “A–B” leaf (the first page of the volume) indicates the final
disposition and location of the volume: “This record was obtained from
Bathsheba Merrill who received it in the effects of her
Mother Sister Bathsheba W. Smith after her death, and was filed in the
Historian’s Office July 3, 1911.
Joseph F. Smith, Jr.”

At least three
verbatim copies have been made: a manuscript copy penned by Emmeline
B. Wells (sometime after 1872), in Emmeline Wells Papers, BYU; a
typewritten copy prepared under the direction of Relief Society general
secretary Amy Brown Lyman, as described by Lyman in Relief
Society General Board, Minutes, 11 December 1929, with some redactions, CHL;
and a typescript completed by Edyth Jenkins Romney for the
Church Historical Department, 15 November 1979, Edyth Jenkins Romney Typescript
Collection, CHL, which formed the basis of this transcript.

In the
1842–1844 Relief Society record, some names have been erased, probably by light
scraping with a penknife, and then rewritten correctly or more neatly. There
are almost no strikeovers or additions, though some words were later inserted
in pencil or different ink. Those apparently later redactions do not appear in
this transcript.